Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by ''GovTrack'', Fortenberry is a "[[GovTrack's Political Spectrum & Legislative Leadership ranking|rank-and-file Republican]]," as of June 18, 2013.<ref name=govtrack>[http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/jeff_fortenberry/400640 ''GovTrack'', "Jeff Fortenberry," accessed June 18, 2013]</ref>

Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by ''GovTrack'', Fortenberry is a "[[GovTrack's Political Spectrum & Legislative Leadership ranking|rank-and-file Republican]]," as of June 18, 2013.<ref name=govtrack>[http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/jeff_fortenberry/400640 ''GovTrack'', "Jeff Fortenberry," accessed June 18, 2013]</ref>

He ran for re-election to the U.S. House in 2014. He won the Republican nomination in the primary election on May 13, 2014. The general election took place November 4, 2014.

Based on analysis of multiple outside rankings, Fortenberry is an average Republican member of Congress, meaning he will vote with the Republican Party on the majority of bills.

Biography

Fortenberry was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He earned a B.A. in economics from Louisiana State University in 1982, a Master's of Public Policy in 1986 from Georgetown University, in addition to a Master's of Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1996.[4]

Career

In the private sector, Fortenberry was an executive in the publishing industry.

Key votes

113th Congress

The second session of the 113th Congress enacted into law 114 out of the 3,036 introduced bills (3.8 percent). Comparatively, the 112th Congress had 4.2 percent of introduced bills enacted into law in the second session.[7] For more information pertaining to Fortenberry's voting record in the 113th Congress, please see the below sections.[8]

National security

NDAA

Fortenberry supported HR 1960 - the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014. The bill passed the House on June 14, 2013, with a vote of 315 - 108. Both parties were somewhat divided on the vote.[9]

DHS Appropriations

Fortenberry supported HR 2217 - the DHS Appropriations Act (2014) Act of 2014. The bill passed the House on June 6, 2013, with a vote of 245 - 182 and was largely along party lines.[9]

Keystone Pipeline Amendment

Fortenberry supported House Amendment 69, which would have amended HR 3 to "require that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, conduct a study of the vulnerabilities of the Keystone XL pipeline to a terrorist attack and certify that necessary protections have been put in place." The amendment failed on May 22, 2013, with a vote of 176 - 239 and was largely along party lines.[9]

CISPA (2013)

Fortenberry supported HR 624 - the CISPA (2013). The bill passed the House on April 18, 2013, with a vote of 288 - 127. The bill would allow federal intelligence agencies to share cybersecurity intelligence and information with private entities and utilities.[10] The bill was largely supported by Republicans, but divided the Democratic Party.[9]

Government shutdown

On September 30, 2013, the House passed a final stopgap spending bill before the shutdown went into effect. The bill included a one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate and would have also stripped the bill of federal subsidies for congressional members and staff. It passed through the House with a vote of 228-201.[13] At 1 a.m. on October 1, 2013, one hour after the shutdown officially began, the House voted to move forward with going to a conference. In short order, Sen. Harry Reid rejected the call to conference.[14] Fortenberry voted to approve the stopgap spending bill that would have delayed the individual mandate.[13]

The shutdown finally ended on October 16, 2013, when the House took a vote on HR 2775 after it was approved by the Senate. The bill to reopen the government lifted the $16.7 trillion debt limit and funded the government through January 15, 2014. Federal employees also received retroactive pay for the shutdown period. The only concession made by Senate Democrats was to require income verification for Obamacare subsidies.[15] The House passed the legislation shortly after the Senate, by a vote of 285-144, with all 144 votes against the legislation coming from Republican members. Fortenberry voted for HR 2775.[16]

Immigration

Morton Memos Prohibition

Fortenberry supported House Amendment 136 - Prohibits the Enforcement of the Immigration Executive Order. The amendment was adopted by the House on June 6, 2013, with a vote of 224 - 201. The purpose of the amendment as stated on the official text is to "prohibit the use of funds to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the Morton Memos." These memos would have granted administrative amnesty to certain illegal aliens residing in the United States.[17] The vote largely followed party lines.[18]

Healthcare

Obamacare

Fortenberry supported repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Healthcare-Related Provisions in the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[19]

Social issues

Abortion

Fortenberry supported HR 1797 - Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The resolution passed the House on June 18, 2013, with a vote of 228 - 196. The purpose of the bill is to ban abortions that would take place 20 or more weeks after fertilization.[20]

Previous congressional sessions

Fiscal Cliff

Fortenberry voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. He was 1 of 85 Republicans that voted in favor of the bill. The bill was passed in the House by a 257-167 vote on January 1, 2013.[21]

Issues

On The Issues Vote Match

On The Issues conducts a VoteMatch analysis of all Congressional members based on 20 issue areas. Rather than relying on incumbents to complete the quiz themselves, the VoteMatch analysis is conducted using voting records, statements to the media, debate transcripts or citations from books authored by or about the candidate. Based on the results of the quiz, Fortenberry is a Hard-Core Conservative. Fortenberry received a score of 17 percent on personal issues and 87 percent on economic issues.[22]

On The Issues organization logo.

The table below contains the results of analysis compiled by staff at On The Issues.

Fortenberry was reportedly considering a bid to succeed outgoing freshman U.S. Senator Mike Johanns in the 2014 elections, but decided to run for re-election to the House of Representatives instead.[24]

Full history

To view the full congressional electoral history for Jeff Fortenberry, click [show] to expand the section.

2010

On November 2, 2010, Jeff Fortenberry won re-election to the United States House. He defeated Ivy Harper (D) in the general election.[27]

U.S. House, Nebraska District 1 General Election, 2010

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Republican

Jeff Fortenberryincumbent

71.3%

116,871

Democratic

Ivy Harper

28.7%

47,106

Total Votes

163,977

2008

On November 4, 2008, Jeff Fortenberry won re-election to the United States House. He defeated Max Yashirin (D) in the general election.[28]

U.S. House, Nebraska District 1 General Election, 2008

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Republican

Jeff Fortenberryincumbent

70.4%

184,923

Democratic

Max Yashirin

29.6%

77,897

Total Votes

262,820

2006

On November 7, 2006, Jeff Fortenberry won re-election to the United States House. He defeated Maxine Moul (D) in the general election.[29]

U.S. House, Nebraska District 1 General Election, 2006

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Republican

Jeff Fortenberryincumbent

58.4%

121,015

Democratic

Maxine Moul

41.6%

86,360

Total Votes

207,375

2004

On November 2, 2004, Jeff Fortenberry won election to the United States House. He defeated Matt Connealy and Steve Larrick in the general election.[30]

U.S. House, Nebraska District 1 General Election, 2004

Party

Candidate

Vote %

Votes

Republican

Jeff Fortenberry

54.2%

143,756

Democratic

Matt Connealy (D)

43%

113,971

Green

Steve Larrick (G)

2.8%

7,345

Total Votes

265,072

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Fortenberry is available dating back to 2004. Based on available campaign finance records, Fortenberry raised a total of $4,350,582 during that time period. This information was last updated on May 16, 2013.[31]

PGI: Net worth

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org, Fortenberry's net worth as of 2012 was estimated between $104,006 and $394,999. That averages to $249,502.50, which is lower than the average net worth of Democratic representatives in 2012 of $5,700,168.36. Fortenberry ranked as the 332nd most wealthy representative in 2012.[43] Between 2004 and 2012, Fortenberry's calculated net worth[44] decreased by an average of 6 percent per year. Between 2004 and 2012, the average annual percentage increase for a member of Congress was 15.4 percent.[45]

Comparatively, the American citizen experienced a median yearly decline in net worth of -0.94%.[47]

The data used to calculate changes in net worth may include changes resulting from assets gained through marriage, inheritance, changes in family estates and/or trusts, changes in family business ownership and many other variables unrelated to a member's behavior in Congress.

Lifetime voting record

According to the website GovTrack, Fortenberry missed 204 of 6,443 roll call votes from Jan 2005 to Apr 2013, which is 3.2% of votes during that period. This is worse than the median of 2.2% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving.[48]

Congressional staff salaries

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Fortenberry paid his congressional staff a total of $975,289 in 2011. Overall, Nebraska ranked 20th in average salary for representative staff. The average U.S. House of Representatives congressional staff was paid $954,912.20 in fiscal year 2011.[50]

National Journal vote ratings

Each year, National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted, as compared to other members in the previous year. More information about the analysis process can be found on the vote ratings page.

2012

According to the data released in 2013, Fortenberry was ranked the 207th most conservative representative during 2012.[51]

2011

According to the data released in 2012, Fortenberry was ranked the 202nd most liberal representative during 2011. This is the most liberal ranking held by one of Nebraska's representatives.[52]

Voting with party

2013

Fortenberry voted with the Republican Party 96.6% of the time, which ranked 96th among the 234 House Republican members as of June 2013.[53]

Personal

Jeff and his wife Celeste live in Lincoln, where they raise five young daughters.[54]

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term Jeff + Fortenberry + Nebraska + House

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

↑The questions in the quiz are broken down into two sections -- social and economic. In social questions, liberals and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while conservatives and populists agree in choosing the more restrictive answers. For the economic questions, conservatives and libertarians agree in choosing the less-government answers, while liberals and populists agree in choosing the more restrictive answers.

↑This figure represents the average annual percentage growth from either 2004 (if the member entered office in 2004 or earlier) or their first year in office (as noted in the chart below) to 2012, divided by the number of years calculated.

↑This number was found by dividing each member's total net worth growth percentage by the number of years included in the calculation.

↑This figure represents the total percentage growth divided by the number of years for which there are net worth figures for each member.